SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, JUNE 12, 1891. 



RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN AUTOMATIC WRITING/ 



It is well to state, at the outset of this paper, that it will 

 not be found to contain anything new or startling. Nor 

 does it seem to me that these characteristics are necessary to 

 its usefulness. For though such features have a value of 

 their own in stimulating inquiry, and in forming matter for 

 assimilation by future investigators who shall have ascer- 

 tained tlie principles or laws which, in our present state of 

 knowledge, we are only groping after, they at present rather 

 confound than assist our reason. On the other hand, the 

 more we gain in experimental acquaintance with the psychi- 

 cal side of existence in the living subject, the more likely of 

 fruition, because the more easy of classification, will be those 

 i rare and sporadic phenomena which may be gleaned from 

 the world of phantasm and of second sight. 



While, therefore, facts of all kinds are valuable to us, the 

 most hopeful method of psychical research appears to me to 

 proceed from the known to the unknown, and from the 

 simple to the complex, and thus, by studying the grammar 

 of research, to find gradually the meaning of fact after fact 

 which at present convey no more significance to us than so 

 many undeciphered hieroglyphics. 



To no person are we more indebted for showing us this 

 path to the knowledge which we seek than to Edmund Grur- 

 ney, whose experiments in hypnotism have thrown a new 

 light upon the constitution of human per.sonality in the liv- 

 ing man, and my desire, in the kind of experiments I am 

 about to record, is to follow humbly in his footsteps. 



In comparing hypnotic experiment with automatic writ- 

 ing, we find both advantage and disadvantage. The advan- 

 tages of hypnotism are, the opportunities for studying physi- 

 ological as well as psychical phenomena, the absolute control 

 which it gives us over the subject, unchecked by his self- 

 consciousness, fear of ridicule, and the like, and the greater 

 security from conscious reception or prejudiced ideas which 

 it assures us of as long as hypnosis lasts. On the other 

 hand, granting the good faith of the automatic writer, we 

 can obtain nearly as full results on the psychical side, with- 

 out risk, or the imputation of risk, to the moral or physical 

 well-being of the operator, and can pursue the inquiry at any 

 spare moment and with no further appliances than a pencil 

 and a sheet of paper. 



One thing, however, is essential, and that is an unpreju- 

 diced mind, In automatic writing we are confronted at 

 once with a mysterious intelligent agency, operating with- 

 out the conscious will or mental participation of the writer, 

 but subject, as I am inclined to think, to suggestion in the 

 highest degree. Let it be impressed upon the mind of the 

 writer that this seemingly extraneous intelligence is extra- 

 mundane also, and it will respond to his ideas with the ut- 

 most fidelity. Let him believe that he is holding intercourse 

 with Satan, and it will hasten to assure him of the fact, and 

 back up the assertion with profane language ; or let him be- 



^ Abstract of a paper by Thomas Barkworth in the Proceedings of the So- 

 ciety for Psychical Research, April, 1891. 



lieve himself in communication with some other spirit, ce- 

 lestial or terrestrial, and to the utmost of his own knowl- 

 edge, possessed or forgotten, will he be humored to the top 

 of his bent. In all this we see just what might be expected 

 from our knowledge, already acquired, of the workings of 

 the passive consciousness. Like clay in the hands of the 

 potter (this simile is appropriate in this particular connec- 

 tion, but it would be far otherwise in a general description 

 of the passive personality), the passive consciousness of the 

 hypnotized subject accepts the part assigned him, and he is 

 equally ready to believe himself a brooding hen or a water 

 pump, and to spread his arms for wings or work them up 

 and down for handles. In relating the few facts which 

 I am about to describe, my principal object is, however, not 

 to sustaiti or assail any theories, but to stimulate inquiry. 

 My bope is that many persons may be induced to make ex- 

 periments who at present hold aloof from fear of meddling 

 with what is forbidden, or uncanny, or too serious for what 

 they would deem trifling. In the journal for July I ap- 

 pealed for assistance in these experiments, and from all those 

 whom it reaches I only got replies from two gentlemen, 

 neither of whom, unfortunately, could use the planchette. Is 

 there no one, then, among our seven hundred members and 

 associates who has the gift, and can spare fifteen minutes 

 now and then to make experiments and record results ? 



The operator in the following experiments is a young lady, 

 aged fifteen, an inmate of my household, and companion in 

 study with my own daughter. We have, therefore, the best 

 means of estimating her character and her bona fides, which, 

 let me say at once, are, we consider, beyond a doubt. She 

 had not previously heard of planchette, and Spiritualism 

 was, to her, a mere name. I took care from the first that no 

 ideas of this kind should be instilled, and she thus ap- 

 proached the subject without any foregone conclusion. 

 Most of the experiments were made with the aid of a plan- 

 chette. But latterly a pencil was used, held vertically be- 

 tween the points of the fingers and thumbs of both hands, 

 and once or twice the pencil was held in the ordinary way. 

 These changes, however, did not seem to affect the result. 

 The first experiments were attempted by this girl, whom I 

 will call C, in conjunction with her companion, but it soon 

 became evident that the latter was merely a passenger, so to 

 speak, and that C. was the real operator. She was therefore 

 left to write by herself. Unfortunately she looked upon 

 the whole thing as a great bore, and, as I was unwilling to 

 press her, the experiments have only been few and far be- 

 tween. She never knew what she had written till it was 

 looked at, and there was often some slight difficulty in de- 

 ciphering it. 



Thus the first question. Who are you that write? produced 

 what at first I took to be mere scrawling, and C. shortly af- 

 ter left the room. After she had done so I took another look 

 at this scrawl, and then at once perceived that it was legible, 

 and that the name written in answer to the question was 

 ''Henry Morton." I at once followed C. upstairs, and 

 asked her if she had ever heai'd the name, and she replied 

 that it was that of a character in a Christmas play she had 

 acted in, more than a year previously. Had the name, as 



